Ritter’s Rant 070: War

Hello and welcome to this edition of Ritter's Rant. Um, today we're going to be talking about war 35 years ago to this date. Um, when I woke up, I was in Riad, Saudi Arabia, and we were at war. We being the United States, we being the coalition of the willing, we being the international community that had rallied around the cause of liberating Kuwait. In August of 1990, uh Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Now, there's a whole host of reason why Iraq did this. uh Kuwait was not necessarily being the ne the best neighbor uh slant drilling oil, selling Iraqi oil on the market to suppress the uh price of oil in order to collapse the Iraqi government. Um Iraq had warned Kuwait about this. Iraq had warned the Arab League about this. Iraq had warned the world about this. Nothing was done. So Iraq invaded. But that invasion was against international law. was in violation of the United Nations charter. And the international community rallied around Kuwait and demanded that Iraq um leave Kuwait. They imposed sanctions on Iraq as a way of compelling Iraq to leave Kuwait. Now, an interesting thing about this um in August 1990, Iraq was still very much a client of the Soviet Union. The Iraqi army was equipped with uh some of the most modern equipment uh that could come out of the Soviet Union. They had Scud missiles. They had modern T72 tanks, artillery pieces. And yet the Soviet Union joined together with the United States to create the conditions for the United Nations to finally act the way the United Nations was intended to act. to uphold the rule of law, to uphold the United Nations charter. And these sanctions were put in place because the Soviet Union did not exercise its veto right. The Soviet Union said, "We will stand with international law." on this case. It um was a a departure from I guess the paralysis that had uh gripped the United Nations for decades uh since it was created at the end of the Second World War. The important thing here is that what this meant is that the major nations of the world, the permanent five, the United Nations Security Council were finally in agreement that we needed to stop operating in a system where the world was divided and start operating in a system where the world was united around one set of rules, one set of principles, one set of values, one set of laws, the United Nations charter. And then this continued because Iraq did not leave Kuwait and the Security Council of the United Nations again with the Soviet support passed a chapter 7 resolution which is very important under international law is the only way that nations can lawfully go to war other than self-defense. a chapter 77 resolution authorizing the nations of the world to use military force to liberate Kuwait if Iraq would not leave. And the United States using this chapter 7 resolution built what they called the coalition of the willing. a a very large expansive coalition that included Arab nations, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Pakistan, all rallied around the Gulf Arab states, Saudi Arabia u in order to achieve the liberation of Kuwait. French troops, British troops all fought under uh American command in this case. And on the evening of January 16th, 17th, the an air campaign was launched, a massive air assault against uh against Iraq that uh went on for over 40 days. The purpose of this air campaign was to break down Iraq's ability to resist, to break down the will of the Iraqi government to go on. And at the end of this 40-day air campaign, uh, the coalition of the willing, led by the United States, launched a a ground assault to liberate Kuwait. And a 100 hours later, they had achieved their objectives. Kuwait was liberated. The Iraqi army was defeated. And it looked like international law had had won, had prevailed. Um, that's what this war was about. it. You know, when I was drafted into this conflict, um early on in uh August of uh 1990, I was asked to join a special planning cell in the headquarters of the Marine Corps uh to plan amphibious operations against uh Iraq. And I was brought in by Major General Caulfield and uh he interviewed me to see what I knew about Iraq, what I knew about the Middle East. Uh, and when I was talking to him, I explained my understanding of why Iraq did this. And I said, "Sir, I think we're fighting the wrong Arabs, that the Iraqis are actually honest, hardworking." Uh, and so he said, "Well, can I trust you to be on this team? It seems to me that you want to play for the other side." I said, "No, sir. You're missing the whole point. I'm an intelligence officer. My job is to give you an honest assessment, but I obey my lawful orders." And uh at the end of this conversation, if you tell me to prepare the best amphibious assault against Iraq the world has ever seen, that is what I will do. But you asked me a question about what I thought of the situation and I answered it. Uh it's a complicated war. Um you know, it wasn't necessarily about good versus evil. It was about upholding the rule of law. Iraq invaded and occupied a sovereign nation and that invasion and occupation could not stand. The problem is that this isn't really what was going on. Um, you know, many nations have invaded other nations. Uh, why did the United States pick this case to rally around? Was it because the United States took such a highly principled stand when it came to um, you know, issues of right and wrong? No, it was about oil, plain and simple. Early on um after the Iraqi action against Kuwait, which again was about oil, uh the United States said that we couldn't allow Iraq to leverage its already extensive uh oil reserves uh and expand them by seizing Kuwait's extensive oil reserves and then threaten Saudi Arabia's extensive oil reserves in eastern Saudi Arabia. Now, Iraq never threatened Saudi Arabia. In fact, Iraq had a non-aggression pact with Saudi Arabia, saying, "We will not attack you." Iraq had warned everybody that they're going to go after and punish Kuwait, but this is not a war against the region. But the United States purposefully um mis, you know, misrepresented the Iraqi intent to the Saudis, said that you're under threat. The Saudis authorized the United States to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia, thus beginning Operation Desert Shield, which then later transformed into Desert Storm, which was the war that broke out on the morning of January 17th. Um, now, President [clears throat] Bush had a hard time selling the the concept of war over oil to the American people. So, he turned into a war of ideology. He likened Saddam Hussein who just a few months ago was an American ally. We had sent Donald Rumsfeld to Saddam Hussein during his war with Iran to help uh him. Um I was when I was later a weapons inspector in Iraq. I was in the Iraqi military intelligence headquarters and saw the documentation uh that showed just what kind of help the United States provided. We were very close cooperative allies with Iraq. But suddenly we had to explain to the American people why we had to go to war against Iraq when just the other day they were our friends. So we demonized Saddam Hussein. We called him the Middle East equivalent of Adolf Hitler. And we said that he had you know he required Nerburgg like retribution for the crime of invading occupying Kuwait. Now once you label a leader the equivalent of Adolf Hitler um the war doesn't end just simply by defeating their armed forces. You need to get rid of Saddam Hussein. And that's the situation we found at the end of the Gulf War where the international community had rallied to liberate Kuwait, but the United States sought to transform this mission into something only the United States wanted, which was the elimination of Saddam Hussein. And suddenly this just war became something totally different. It became a decadesl long effort led by the United States in uh an abuse of the chapter 7 resolution that the world had an abuse of international law to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Eventually we ended up invading and occupying Iraq ourselves in 2003. Where was the chapter 7 resolution opposing this? Where was the coalition of the willing opposing that action? It didn't happen because the United States began using its veto in the Unitedi in United Nations Security Council. Um, and now we find the situation that we are in today. The world has flipped upside down. The Middle East is in chaos and anarchy. Um, the United States finds itself increasingly isolated. uh international law has been totally disregarded by a sitting president of the United States. All of this can be traced back to January 17th, 1991, 35 years ago, when Operation Desert Storm began. A war that was supposed to be about the defense of international law instead became a war that triggered events that for the next 35 years allowed the United States to shred international law, to undermine the United Nations charter, and to destroy any notion of a new world order emerging from the end of the Cold War. Today we find ourselves in confrontation with Russia and possibly leading to a new cold war. The world has gone insane. And it can all be traced back to 35 years ago today when American bombs began falling on Iraq and Operation Desert Storm began. Anyways, that's my rant. Um, next time a thought crosses my mind, I'll be sure to let you know. Thank you.

35 years ago Operation Desert Storm began. It never really ended, and the world is worse for it.